Next generation reproductive technology for the next generation

Until the 90's males with very low counts (less than 5 million per ml) or poor quality sperms had no hope of fathering children. This problem was surmounted by the new breakthrough of ICSI, which took place in Brussels, Belgium in 1992.

In ICSI all the steps are similar to the procedure of IVF, except the step of fertilization. Normally in IVF one egg is mixed with 100,000 sperms and one of the sperms fertilizes the egg on its own. In contrast, in ICSI each egg is held and injected with a single live sperm. This micro-fertilization is done with the help of a machine called the Micromanipulator.

Whom is ICSI Treatment for?

The indications of conventional IVF and ICSI are tubal factor, uterine factor, premature ovarian failure, ovulatory dysfunction, endometriosis, diminished ovarian reserve and unexplained infertility. ICSI is specially recommended for samples presenting alterations in the semen analysis (mostly in cases of low concentration or motility), situations in which there are a limited number of oocytes available or in cases of previous fertilization failures with conventional IVF. This leads conventional IVF to be usually indicated in good prognosis patients were the quality of both gametes is not an apparent limitation.